


[vore] Squirrels

by wolfbunny



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Cooking, Crossdressing, Dolcett - Freeform, M/M, Non-fatal vore, Soft Vore, Suicidal Thoughts, Vore, anthro fox skelebros, attempted fatal vore, fatal intentions, furry non-skeletons, involuntary confinement, kemonomimi skeletons, kemonomimi squirrel underswap, kept as a pet, reluctant pred, safe vore, seems fatal, unwilling prey, willing prey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-04-25 20:21:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14386395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfbunny/pseuds/wolfbunny
Summary: Underswap Papyrus is a skelesquirrel.Tale Sans is an anthro fox.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DandelionSea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DandelionSea/gifts).



Papyrus had gone too far from the trees. He had to bury a certain number of nuts before winter, because although Sans was boundlessly enthusiastic, he was not exactly efficient, digging up nuts and reburying them in “better” locations, only to bury the next nut he gathered in the original location. So it was up to Papyrus to make sure they had the bare minimum of supplies to last through winter, just in case.  
  
He shouldn’t have ventured this far from the trees, but he wasn’t really worried. If danger appeared, he could always teleport back to safety. Besides, squirrels were fast. He probably wouldn’t even need to teleport.  
  
The gambit might not pay off—the nuts fell from the trees in the first place, so there might not be any this far away. But you never knew, and there were other things that were edible too. The forest was green and leafy with summer, and food was plentiful.  
  
And it was just nice to walk in the sun sometimes, even if a squirrel’s life wasn’t so easy he could neglect to keep an eye out for anything useful. The grass was vivid green, and he knew he would stand out with his orange fur and matching hoodie, and the sun glinting off his white bones. Autumn was a little better, but bright coloration was just something he had to live with. Sans had it worse, since the trees never turned blue, although there were worse colors for blending in with green leaves. He hadn’t seen that little purple squirrel in a while, for instance, and didn’t care to think very closely on what might have happened to him.  
  
There was a difference between planning ahead and meditating on every possible danger when it wasn’t even imminent, which kind of defeated the point of staying alive in the first place, he reasoned. So he stayed watchful without letting it intrude on enjoying the good weather today and the relative ease of summer.  
  
His watchfulness paid off when he noticed furry ears sticking out from behind a bush. The creature saw him notice it and gave up on hiding, stepping out and revealing itself. It was a fox, covered in gray fur, standing on two legs and wearing a blue jacket.  
  
“Hey,” said the fox, amicably.  
  
Papyrus bolted for the tree line.  
  
There was a gentle rise in the ground and although he wouldn’t have thought it was enough to hide anything, as he crested it he found himself face-to-face with the fox again. How had it circled around so fast? It grinned at his surprise as he skidded into a sharp turn. He didn’t like to reveal the ace up his sleeve, but this situation justified a teleport. As the fox pounced, he disappeared from under its claws, popping into existence several yards away among the trees.  
  
Papyrus looked back at where he’d come from, expecting to see the frustrated fox, but it was gone. Where had it gone? He had to find it before it found him.  
  
“Lookin’ for me?”  
  
Papyrus spun around to see the fox standing disconcertingly close to him. How had it gotten there? How could it have run ahead of him without knowing where he would appear? There was no time to figure that out until he got to safety. He had one more even-better trick up his sleeve, though. He teleported into the nearest tree, clinging to the bark. No fox could follow him here.  
  
His experienced paws carried him up to a sturdy branch, where he perched, looking back down at the fox. It didn’t seem frustrated. It had located him in the tree, probably by the sound of his claws on the bark, and was grinning up at him. Papyrus did not like that at all. The fox should be pawing futilely at the trunk of the tree, or glaring up at him in resentment, or even successfully climbing up and forcing him to run further away, but not sitting there contentedly looking back at him.  
  
It seemed even more amused by his confusion at its attitude, and then suddenly it was gone. The branch dipped under Papyrus, and he almost lost his grip. The fox, next to him on the branch, took the opportunity to pluck him up in its paw. He wondered if the branch would break rather than support the fox’s weight, but the next moment the fox was back on the ground, its fingers still wrapped around Papyrus’s spine and ribs. The sudden shift was disorienting in the exact same way as when Papyrus himself teleported, if a bit worse because he hadn’t known their destination and had to look around to get his bearings.  
  
They were just below the same tree he’d taken refuge in. Not that his location mattered much beyond the fact that he was in the grasp of a much larger, predatory animal. Papyrus stiffened, his tail flickering nervously. Stars, it wasn’t fair that the fox could teleport too. He could only hope it was satisfied with him and moved on, but even so, how would Sans survive without his brother?  
  
He would just have to have faith that Sans could make it on his own, despite his haphazard nut-gathering methods and overly optimistic attitude toward other animals. Papyrus had been the cautious one and he’d still gotten caught, so what hope did Sans have? Especially if foxes could teleport now.  
  
The fox didn’t seem inclined to make conversation before getting down to business. It shifted its grip to hold him by the tail and let him dangle helplessly over its skull. Papyrus attempted a teleport—even if he brought the fox with him, perhaps he could drop them from a significant height and get the fox to let go on impact. Risking injury in a fall was better than certain death. But the fox was too big for him to teleport, and he couldn’t get away with its paw gripping his tail.  
  
Maybe he could escape in the instant of free fall when the fox dropped him into its mouth. He forced himself to keep his eyes open as the fox’s jaws yawned open below him. Its pink tongue glistened between its sharp white teeth. His eyes followed it back to the darkness of its throat as it opened wide.  
  
Papyrus stayed tense, ready to teleport the second the fox’s paw left his tail, but it didn’t. He waited to see the fox’s mouth rushing toward him as he fell, but it approached at a casual pace; the fox was lowering him in by the tail without letting him go.  
  
He was out of ideas, but he wouldn’t just lie down and die. As the fox’s jaws came within reach, he tried to grap onto its lips and teeth and pull himself out. The fox ignored his efforts and finished lowering his tail into its mouth, so that all he accomplished was to lie on its tongue with his feet rather than his face pointing down toward its throat. It closed its jaws over him before it let go of his tail, leaving him trapped between its tongue and palate with his tail sticking out sideways between its teeth. He tried to pull himself forward and out, but between the prodding tongue and the tilt of the fox’s head he kept falling further in, bit by bit. Soon his feet were down the fox’s throat, and there was nothing but warm wet softness that gave his claws no purchase to climb out. In a burst of desperation, he grasped the fox’s molars on either side and managed to push himself a fraction of an inch toward freedom and life.  
  
“Heh.” The fox’s amused grunt echoed around him. The palate lifted away. Was it so amused by his struggles that it was going to take pity on him?  
  
The fox pressed a finger against his skull and pushed until he lost his grip on its teeth and slid deeper into its throat than he had been before. Now its internal muscles had a grip on his lower body and pulled him deeper on their own as the fox gulped. Its paw withdrew. Papyrus tried to cling to its tongue as its jaws closed around him, sealing out the light of the summer forest, but it was too slippery, and the next time the fox swallowed, he was pulled completely into the tight wet darkness of its throat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See art and subtle fishing for more comments on my [tumblr](http://nom-the-skel.tumblr.com)!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh no, squirrel Underswap Papyrus got eaten.  
> Meanwhile, squirrel Underswap Sans meets anthro fox Papyrus!

Papyrus never hunted but he would have been great at it. His sensitive ears detected the skittering of claws on bark and his sharp vision picked out the squirrel immediately. Although this particular squirrel wasn’t hard to spot. Its fur was bright blue, and so were its bandanna and … eye lights. It was an odd little squirrel, actually, its species identifiable primarily by its characteristic tail. Most of the rest of it just looked like a miniature humanoid skeleton. It was staring at him from the end of the branch, a couple feet above his head.  
  
“Hello there.” He smiled at it, then realized it might be intimidated by all his teeth—not an uncommon reaction when he tried to befriend squirrels.  
  
But the squirrel’s grin remained fixed. “Hello!” it answered.  
  
“Nice to meet you, squirrel! My name is Papyrus.” Papyrus was delighted to get this far in a conversation with a squirrel for once.  
  
“Really?” The squirrel seemed delighted too. “That’s my brother’s name!”  
  
“Wowie! I didn’t know squirrels used the same kinds of names as foxes!”  
  
“Well, how many squirrels have told you their names?”  
  
“So far … none! You’ve only told me your brother’s name! What’s yours?”  
  
“My name’s Sans!”  
  
“Wowie again! That’s MY brother’s name!”  
  
The squirrel sat down on the branch and laughed. “You have a brother too?”  
  
“Yes, he’s smaller and very smart and—actually, I don’t recommend him for squirrels.”  
  
“My brother isn’t a big fan of foxes either. He looks like me but taller and oranger!”  
  
“Tall and orange—we have more in common than just a name!” Papyrus grinned. His fur was orange, like many foxes, with black tips on his ears, tail, and legs, and a white underbelly.  
  
“He’s even more orange than you, because you’re wearing a red scarf and he’s wearing all orange. It’s better for camouflage, at least in fall, he says,” the squirrel explained sagely.   
  
“I’d like to meet him too, but I don’t want to scare him.”  
  
“You’re a nice fox. I’ve always wanted to be friends with a fox! Even though my brother says I shouldn’t.”  
  
“I’ve always wanted to be friends with a squirrel! And my brother has never approved of that either.” The names were an odd coincidence, but this was going incredibly well.  
  
“Hey, would you do me a favor, now that we’re friends?”  
  
“Of course!”  
  
“Open your mouth.”  
  
Papyrus had inched closer while they were talking and was now directly under the squirrel, craning his neck to look up at it. He obediently opened his jaws, but had to close them at least partially in order to ask, “Why?”  
  
“I’m gonna jump down to you. Catch me!” The squirrel jumped without further confirmation.  
  
Papyrus was startled, but caught it in his paws, thanks to his finely honed reflexes.  
  
“No, in your mouth, silly!” said the squirrel, grinning up at him.  
  
“What? Why?”  
  
“Foxes eat squirrels, don’t they?”  
  
“Well. Yes,” Papyrus admitted.  
  
“Don’t you want to eat me?”  
  
“No, of course not!”  
  
“Are you sure?” The squirrel stood up on his palms and placed its hands on the end of his muzzle, leaning close to his nose. “Don’t I smell good?”  
  
“Of course you smell … good.” It was, in fact, making his mouth water. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to eat you!”  
  
“Why not?”  
  
“Because—we’re friends now, aren’t we?”  
  
“So?”  
  
“I don’t want to—hurt you.”  
  
“You wouldn’t hurt me, would you? I trust you. Like you said, we’re friends now.”  
  
Papyrus felt like he wasn’t arguing effectively. “Most monsters don’t want—”  
  
“Oh, hey, Paps.” He’d been so distracted by the squirrel—or Sans had been so sneaky—that he hadn’t noticed his brother approach. “You caught a squirrel too!”  
  
“Yes, sort of—Wait. Did you also catch a squirrel, Sans?”  
  
“Sure did.”  
  
“Was it—” Papyrus had a sinking feeling. “Was it like this one except orange and a bit taller?”  
  
“Yeah, come to think of it. And very tasty. You should try one.”  
  
The blue squirrel stared at Sans with wide eye sockets, and Papyrus braced against its reaction to hearing its brother had been eaten. Would it cry? Would it try to take revenge on Sans somehow?  
  
“I can’t believe Papy actually let you do that!” Its face lit up in delight.  
  
The foxes exchanged awkward glances. “He didn’t exactly LET me,” said Sans, grinning below a knitted brow.  
  
“Of course he did. Nobody could catch my brother if he didn’t let them!” The squirrel turned to puff out its chest at Sans, then back to Papyrus to pat his muzzle. “See, Foxy? If our brothers can do it, we can do it too. Right?” It looked back at Sans for confirmation.  
  
“Uh. Yeah,” Sans agreed. “You should definitely eat ‘im, Paps.”  
  
“Yeah, Paps!” the squirrel chimed in, copying Sans’s nickname for him. “Come on!”  
  
“Well … If you say so.” Papyrus wasn’t completely sure he could swallow the squirrel without hurting it, but at this point, he almost felt that if it turned out not to be possible to safely eat a squirrel, at least he would be sparing it knowing what had really happened to its brother. He opened his jaws again, and before he could do anything, the squirrel had clambered onto his tongue.  
  
“This is so exciting!” it said. “Do I taste good?”  
  
“Ahh,” Papyrus said affirmatively, unable to talk with the squirrel in his mouth.  
  
“Do you want me head-first or tail-first?” The squirrel was crawling in circles, unable to decide on a position. After a moment, Papyrus closed his mouth on it just to stop its claws tickling his tongue, trapping it against the roof of his mouth. It went still and didn’t protest—in fact, it giggled faintly; it must be okay with this.  
  
Since he’d come this far, he went ahead and swallowed it. Its fluffy tail dried out his mouth a bit, but otherwise it was very nice, and the little gasping yelp it made before it disappeared down his throat was kind of adorable and gratifying even as he was concerned it might be having second thoughts about this. But it was too late now, as he could feel it being pushed down toward his stomach. He hoped he could get it back out without too much unpleasantness.  
  
“Wow, Paps, I was beginning to think you’d never do that.” Sans had watched the whole thing.  
  
“He asked me to.” Papyrus looked away. Hopefully Sans couldn’t see him blushing through his fur.  
  
“You don’t gotta justify it. You’re a fox.” Sans took a step closer. “I’m proud of ya, actually.”  
  
“You won’t be in a moment. Because I’m going to have to insist you give back his brother.”  
  
“Whaddaya mean?” Sans frowned.  
  
“He clearly thinks squirrels can be eaten and safely … brought back.”  
  
“That’s his problem,” Sans interrupted, but Papyrus ignored him.  
  
“And obviously I don’t want to hurt my new squirrel friend. But if—when—I bring him back out, he’ll be quite devastated if he finds out you ate his brother—more permanently.”  
  
“Look, Paps, it’s your business if you wanna—”  
  
“Please, Sans.” Papyrus looked down at him—their relative heights made the angle unavoidable—with wet, soulful eyes.  
  
Sans bared his teeth in a grimace. “All right,” he growled. “Fine. Give me a little privacy, please. I can’t guarantee there’s anything more than bones left of him by now, though.”  
  
“He was mostly bones to start with,” Papyrus pointed out, but he turned away and tried to ignore the retching sounds Sans was making.  
  
“Okay,” said Sans, and he turned back. “Here you go. Hope you’re happy.” He grumpily handed Papyrus a handful of sodden orange fur.  
  
“Thank you, Sans.” Papyrus prodded at the fur, unwrapping the tail from the bones, and the little skeleton stirred. “Thank stars, you’re alive,” he murmured. “Wait there for a second and I’ll get your brother.”  
  
The orange squirrel looked up at him with growing horror, and he hoped it wouldn’t try to run away while he was focusing on willing his stomach to bring the blue squirrel back up. Fortunately, it didn’t prove too difficult. Intent really was key; they’d probably been lucky that Sans hadn’t intended to digest the orange squirrel too quickly, most likely preferring to savor the process. In a matter of moments, Papyrus managed to cough up a blue hairball to match the orange one. This one uncurled on its own to reveal an equally bedraggled but much more cheerful squirrel.  
  
“See? I knew you could do it!” the blue squirrel said. “Oh! Papy! You’re back, too!”  
  
“Sans?” The orange squirrel’s voice was fragile. It fell on the blue squirrel in an embrace, which was a lot for Papyrus to balance in his paws. “Am I alive? Or did we both—Did you get eaten too?”  
  
“Yeah, I did!”  
  
“Oh stars.” The orange squirrel looked around at Papyrus. “You’d think we could get away from bloodthirsty foxes in the afterlife.”  
  
“He’s not bloodthirsty. This is my new friend. And you’re not dead, Papy!”  
  
“How am I not dead? That fox over there—that fox—he—” The orange squirrel couldn’t bring himself to say it. Sans waved at them, keeping his distance, his amicable grin pretty convincing aside from the awkward tilt of one ear.  
  
“He spit you back out, silly! Why did you let him eat you if you were gonna be this scared? You know you don’t have to be as brave as me!”  
  
“I didn’t LET him—wait, what did you do that was brave? You—you let a fox eat you?”  
  
“Well, yeah!”  
  
The orange squirrel looked down at his brother and took in all the fox saliva coating his bones and matting his tail fur. “Why—why would—Sans, we talked about this! You don’t want to get eaten by a fox! When a fox eats you, you die!”  
  
“Then why aren’t we dead?” The blue squirrel crossed its arms triumphantly.  
  
“Maybe we ARE dead and you just haven’t realized it.” The orange squirrel sat back, horrified.  
  
“You aren’t dead,” Papyrus said, inserting himself into their conversation.  
  
“How do you know?” the orange squirrel shot back.  
  
“Well, I’m here too, and I’m not dead. I haven’t even done anything dangerous.”  
  
“You coulda choked on a squirrel tail,” Sans suggested helpfully.  
  
Papyrus shot him a glare. “I don’t remember doing that. And they do remember being eaten, so it follows that if I had choked to death I would remember that too.”  
  
“See, Papy, we’re alive. And we made TWO new friends!”  
  
Papyrus and the orange squirrel looked doubtfully at Sans, who gave them his most winning smile, with lots of sharp teeth.  
  
“Right,” said Papyrus, deciding not to argue the point. “And as we’re now friends, I have a request to make of you.”  
  
“Of course!” agreed the blue squirrel. “It’s only fair, since you did something for me.”  
  
“Yes.” Papyrus suspected the orange squirrel wouldn’t have counted eating him as a favor. “About that. I’d be really happy if you agreed to, er, keep this particular activity exclusive between us.”  
  
“You mean you don’t want me to get eaten by other foxes?”  
  
“That’s right. Or other predators in general. If you can at all help it.”  
  
“Just you and your brother?”  
  
“Well. Me. And perhaps my brother. We’ll see. But definitely no one else.”  
  
The blue squirrel thought for a moment. “Okay, sure!” he finally agreed, brightly, and looked expectantly at his brother.  
  
“I’ve had enough of being eaten by anyone, ever,” said the orange squirrel.  
  
“More foxes for me!” the blue squirrel beamed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kinda hate summarizing plot ideas in notes because everything sounds silly when summarized, but I kinda like this second line for its unnecessary polysyllabicity:  
> assumes Stretch also is having fun nom times with Sans  
> Papyrus insists this be retroactively approximated


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans goes hunting again.

Sans caught sight of the orange skeleton squirrel, the one Papyrus was calling Stretch, since he was tall—for a squirrel—and it was awkward that they were both named ‘Papyrus.’ He’d promised Papyrus not to hurt either of ‘his’ squirrels, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have some fun. And besides, Stretch should prove a challenge to catch, now that he knew Sans could teleport—add on the fact that Stretch could teleport himself and Sans wasn’t even sure he could catch him. Which was why he couldn’t resist trying.  
  
Keeping silent, he stalked the squirrel, drawing closer as it cast back and forth across the forest floor, looking for nuts, or whatever squirrels did, its tail flicking enticingly. When he was nearly in pouncing range, the squirrel noticed him. It made a beeline for the nearest tree.  
  
Stupid, Sans thought. The squirrel should know that he’d catch it if it took a predictable path. Unless perhaps it was up to something, only trying to make him think it was being stupid. The moment of disappointment gave way to anticipation again. He would play along and see what the squirrel’s strategy was.  
  
He teleported directly into its path and pounced, fully expecting it to dodge or even teleport out of the way. Instead, it gasped in surprise and tried to double back, but not fast enough. Sans’s paws pinned it to the ground, knocking the breath out of it in a terrified squeak.  
  
“I win,” he said, picking it up by the tail. “I think I deserve a taste of squirrel for that.”  
  
He expected the squirrel to argue with him, but it just hung there and shivered. Sans’s ears flattened in irritation. Didn’t it remember he’d promised not to hurt it? Or did it just think he was a liar? Well, he’d pay it back for that insult by giving it a little scare. It was its own fault if it got scared when it ought to know it was safe with him now.  
  
He held it in front of his face and opened his jaws wide, letting it get a good look. It jumped and started shivering even harder, pulling its fluffy hoodie over its skull as if it could hide that way. Sans set it down on his tongue—he’d proposed tasting it, after all. As soon as he let go of its tail, it immediately tried to scramble out, so he closed his teeth on it, gently. It ended up lying across his jaw with its legs and tail hanging out one side of his mouth and its arms and skull dangling from the other.  
  
Sans let it lie there, restraining it only lightly with his teeth. He could feel the squirrel trembling, and he could swear he felt its soul pounding rapidly in its little chest. It made no further attempt to escape, but eventually it turned its skull to look up at his eyes. “Please don’t bite down,” it begged, its voice a high-pitched sob.  
  
Stupid squirrel. Sans rolled his eyes. Obviously he wasn’t going to bite it. It should know that. If anything, he would swallow it whole again, but it wasn’t really worth the effort of bringing it back up afterward.  
  
The squirrel had started to cry now. Sans gathered it back into his mouth to get more of its bones against his tongue. It was wearing a different hoodie than before, he realized. It tasted different.  
  
Its tears were liquid magic, which helped its unique flavor resist being overwhelmed by the taste of its intense fear. Sans pressed his tongue against it. It wasn’t just the clothes that tasted different, he realized. The squirrel tasted wrong. Similar to before, but not the same. His ears stood up, tense, as it dawned on him what had happened.  
  
He spat the squirrel out into his waiting paw. “You’re not Stretch. Who are you?”  
  
“I’m called Slim,” the squirrel answered hesitantly.  
  
“Nice to meet you, Slim.” Sans gave it a friendly smile, showing off all his teeth. “Sorry about that. I mistook you for a different squirrel.”  
  
Now that he looked closer, Slim had a different face. His teeth were sharper, his skull more battered, and his fur was a few shades darker.  
  
“But since you’re not him …” Sans’s smile turned more predatory. “That means I never promised not to eat you.”  
  
He popped Slim back into his mouth before the squirrel could react. He’d already tasted it pretty thoroughly, so he wasted no time in gulping it down.  
  
***  
  
On his way back home Sans found Papyrus talking with his new squirrel friends. He sat down against the tree where Stretch was perched—the orange squirrel was less trusting than the blue one, which liked to sit on Papyrus’s paw or shoulder—to wait until Papyrus was done so that they could go home together. There was no need to tell any of them about Slim. It might be fun to torment the squirrels, but he didn’t want to upset Papyrus.  
  
Slim was still squirming periodically inside his belly, which was nice. He definitely didn’t feel guilty about that, especially not when Stretch kept glancing warily at him. Slim may not have been much of a challenge to catch—but he hadn’t had the experience Stretch had, so Sans’s expectations hadn’t been fair. And he seemed like a nice squirrel, openly terrified rather than guarded and sarcastic like Stretch had been, after Sans did him the favor of not digesting him. It was too bad he couldn’t trade out Slim for Stretch, because the blue squirrel—which Papyrus had nicknamed Blueberry, since it was small and kind of round, and blue—Blueberry would be able to tell them apart at a glance. Stretch was his brother, after all.  
  
Sans was determined to enjoy his time with Slim while it lasted. Stars knew it was getting hard to find a squirrel around here that wasn’t under his brother’s protection. He never felt guilty about eating squirrels and he wasn’t about to start now. Perhaps if he imagined it was Stretch’s life ebbing away inside him, rather than Slim …  
  
“Brother, is something bothering you?” Papyrus asked, leaving off his conversation with Blueberry.  
  
“No, of course not. I’m gonna maybe nap here while you’re playing with your squirrel friends. Wake me when you’re ready to go home.”  
  
“Very well, Brother! Did you know Stretch is also a connoisseur of naps?”  
  
“Yeah?” Sans looked slyly up at the squirrel. “Wanna come down here and join me?”  
  
“No, thank you,” Stretch answered coldly.  
  
“Tch.” It would have been fun to hold Stretch against his belly while the other squirrel was digesting inside. Maybe Stretch would be unaware, but he would still be intimidated by the reminder of his own recent brush with death. Or perhaps he would hear something and catch on, but not be able to say anything for fear of disillusioning his brother. “Suit yourself.” Sans closed his eyes and drifted off with practiced ease.  
  
He woke with a start when Slim made a particularly desperate effort to claw his way back up Sans’s esophagus. Why was the squirrel not only still alive, but whole enough to be struggling so vigorously? If Slim wasn’t going to let him nap and digest in peace, maybe he wasn’t really preferable to Stretch at all.  
  
Papyrus was a short distance away, watching Blueberry demonstrate some acrobatics using the branches of a bush. Stretch seemed to have fallen asleep himself, still in the tree. And now that he looked around, the light was different—he’d been asleep for a while. That made it all the more curious that Slim was still alive and trying to escape. “Hey, bro. How long was I out?”  
  
“Oh! I think it’s been a couple hours. Did you want to get home? I’m afraid Blueberry and I may have lost track of time.”  
  
“Nah, it’s fine.”  
  
Papyrus looked suspicious for a split second before favoring him with a bright smile and turning back to his squirrel friend. He knew something was bothering Sans. Stretch was also peering down at him now. Sans glared at the squirrel, making him hide behind the branch.  
  
If he’d been asleep for over an hour, why hadn’t Slim been absorbed like he was supposed to be? Sans thought he knew, as much as he hated to admit it, even to himself. He just didn’t really want to hurt—no, to kill the squirrel. Had he lost his taste for squirrels entirely? Would this extend to other prey animals? It was worrisome. But even more so was the question of what he was going to do now. He couldn’t carry Slim around in his stomach indefinitely, could he? Maybe he could—maybe it would even be sort of fun—but it would be pretty cruel to the squirrel. He already felt kind of bad that Slim had been in there so long. Sure, he’d intended to digest him, but it wasn’t supposed to take as long as this.  
  
“Hey Paps.” He pushed against the tree and got to his feet. “I just remembered. I brought you a present.”  
  
“Ooh! Really?” Papyrus’s eyes went to Sans’s pockets, where he might normally be expected to carry a small object.  
  
Sans held up one paw to request patience, while he coughed up the squirrel into his other paw. “Here you go. Another squirrel friend. If he doesn’t run off, anyway.”  
  
“Sans, did you have him in there this whole time—”  
  
Blueberry spoke over Papyrus. “Hello! I’ve seen you before! What’s your name?”  
  
“His name’s Slim,” Sans introduced him, straightening out the squirrel’s tail and poking him with a claw until he opened his eyes.  
  
“Razz?” Slim breathed as he caught sight of Blueberry.  
  
“No, no. My name’s—” Blueberry glanced at Sans. “—Blueberry,” he finished, ceding their mutual name to the fox.  
  
“Oh.” Slim wilted, but only for a moment. He looked over his shoulder at Sans as if asking permission, then vanished and reappeared sitting in the bush next to Blueberry.  
  
“You can teleport too? Why did you let me catch you?” Sans folded his ears back in exasperation.  
  
“I’m—sorry?”  
  
Blueberry laughed. “You don’t have to apologize for getting caught. Sans is a good hunter. He even caught my brother!”  
  
“I let him catch me, remember?” Stretch lied from up in the tree.  
  
Sans was pretty sure he could’ve manage enough deadly intent to digest Stretch, if he hadn’t promised Papyrus that he wouldn’t.  
  
“You were always with that other squirrel, the purple one,” Blueberry said to Slim. “Whatever happened to him?”  
  
“My brother. He was … eaten …” Slim glanced back at Sans.  
  
Blueberry looked at Sans, apprehensively. Papyrus looked at Sans, accusatively. “Brother! Did you eat that purple squirrel?”  
  
“Look, Paps, I can’t remember every squirrel I ever—”  
  
“By wolves,” Slim clarified.  
  
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” Blueberry patted Slim’s shoulder sympathetically, and the other squirrel leaned against him.  
  
“Yeah, that’s real tragic,” said Sans, and Papyrus shot him a glare for his hypocrisy.  
  
“That’s too bad,” said Stretch, waving his tail. “But just because you lost your brother doesn’t mean you can steal any of our nuts.”  
  
“Papy, have a heart,” Blueberry protested.  
  
“He doesn’t need your nuts,” Sans said, plucking Slim out of the bush. “I caught him so he’s mine. I can get enough nuts to feed one squirrel.”  
  
“Sans, you forget you gave him to me, so he should be mine,” Papyrus objected.  
  
“Don’t you think it’s awkward if you’re friends with one squirrel and you keep another squirrel as a pet?”  
  
“Hmm. I suppose you have a point. And perhaps he doesn’t want to live with foxes, after the trauma you put him through.”  
  
“Give him to me,” Blueberry suggested. “If he’s my pet then he’s allowed to share our stash of nuts.”  
  
“A squirrel can’t keep another squirrel for a pet,” Sans objected.  
  
“What do you want to do, Slim?” Papyrus asked.  
  
Slim looked around at them all. “You foxes live in a house? With plenty of food and no pred—no other predators?”  
  
“That’s right,” said Papyrus.  
  
“I’ll go with you.” Slim vanished again and reappeared perched on Papyrus’s shoulder. “I promise not to chew up your walls. Just don’t put me in a cage or anything like that.”  
  
“Of course not! You’re not just a pet, you’re our new friend!”  
  
“Sounds like a freeloading roommate,” Sans smirked. “Maybe I can think of a way for you to earn your keep.” He licked his lips.  
  
“And Sans promises not to eat you. Right, Sans?”  
  
“I promise not to eat him without asking.” He didn’t specify who he would ask, or what weight their answer would carry.  
  
“There, see? At least he won’t eat you without your permission.” Papyrus reached up to pat the squirrel. Slim huddled down in the fox’s scarf for protection.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Name issues have gotten weird now that there are too many skelesquirrels to have them all be named Sans and Papyrus. Tune in next time for answers to questions such as: Are there any MORE skelesquirrel pairs in this weird universe? And what exactly happened to Razz?


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans makes a pun.  
> Blueberry makes a new friend.

Slim stuck close to Papyrus for the first day, but then he seemed to come to the conclusion that Sans was a better napping spot, because he didn’t move around so much. Sans, for his part, didn’t tease or threaten the squirrel, except for one incident in which he kept rolling over, obliging the squirrel to climb back on top of him, until Slim gave up and ended up pinned underneath the much larger fox instead. Papyrus hadn’t approved, but the squirrel seemed unharmed.  
  
“I’m going on patrol,” Papyrus announced the next day to the perpetually drowsy pair.  
  
“You mean you’re going to visit Blueberry,” Sans corrected him.  
  
“No, I’m going to patrol our territory.” They may be civilized foxes living in a town with other monsters, but they still maintained part of the neighboring forest as their exclusive territory. “If I see Blueberry I will stop to talk to him. It would be rude to ignore a friend! But I won’t let it interfere with my patrol.”  
  
Sans smirked.  
  
“You know, it’s your territory too.” Papyrus put his paws on his hips. “You could help patrol it occasionally.”  
  
“I do.”  
  
“No you don’t. Catching squirrels doesn’t count.”  
  
Slim looked up sleepily from his comfortable spot in Sans’s hood and Sans reached up to pat him.  
  
“Ugh. That squirrel is a perfect match for you. Neither of you do anything but nap.”  
  
“Sure we do. But you know how hard it is for squirrels to haul around those fluffy tails. He’s just _bushed.”_  
  
“Argh! Goodbye, Sans!”  
  
***  
  
Sans was more or less right, which just made it more annoying. Papyrus had been spending more time with Blueberry and less time actually patrolling. So today he made a point of avoiding the blue squirrel’s usual hangouts until he’d already covered most of his usual patrol route.  
  
“There you are, Foxy! I’ve been looking all over for you!”  
  
“Oh! Hello, Blueberry.” Papyrus spotted the squirrel on a branch overhead and put on his usual friendly smile, hiding his guilt over inconveniencing his friend out of stubbornness. “I was just—oh my! Who’s your friend?”  
  
Another squirrel scampered to catch up with Blueberry and frowned down at Papyrus. It looked a lot like Blueberry at first glance, except with red fur. But on closer inspection, it was quite different, and not nearly as cute. It reminded Papyrus a little of Slim—it had a fluff-lined jacket, sharp teeth, and a battered look to its bones—but it lacked his lost puppy-dog quality (although Papyrus was afraid of dogs, to be honest). But if it was a friend of Blueberry’s, Papyrus would give it a chance.  
  
“This is Red!” Blueberry introduced the newcomer. “And his brother, Edge!”  
  
Papyrus realized that another squirrel was following them at a distance, also red-furred. Before he could get a good look at it, it skittered around to the opposite side of the tree trunk it was clinging to. Papyrus was used to that reaction from squirrels, but it still stung a little.  
  
“Red, this is Papyrus!” Blue continued his introductions. “See? I told you he was a nice fox.”  
  
“He may look nice for a fox, but he’s still a fox.” Red was not convinced. “And foxes aren’t nice. They’re dangerous.”  
  
“He’s not dangerous, and I’ll prove it to you!” Blue leaned over the side of the branch. “Open your mouth, Foxy!”  
  
“Are you sure that’s the best way to prove I’m safe?” Papyrus had doubts, but he made sure he was standing directly under the squirrels.  
  
“It’s a great way!” Blue smiled down at him. How was he supposed to say no to that face?  
  
“What are you doin’?” Red asked, tail flickering anxiously.  
  
“It’s a surprise!”  
  
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Papyrus still had to sound a note of caution.  
  
“Absolutely! Close your eyes and open your mouth!”  
  
“Close my eyes?”  
  
“It’s a surprise!”  
  
Papyrus was pretty sure he knew what the surprise was, but he obediently closed his eyes and stretched his jaws wide, facing up toward the squirrels.  
  
He heard claws on bark and a startled noise from the red squirrel. A split second later, something landed in his mouth with such force that he immediately swallowed it. He opened his eyes again.  
  
“Blue, that wasn’t really much of a surprise,” he said to the squirrel on the branch above him. “That was exactly what I expected you to …” He trailed off as he realized Blue was still on the branch, which meant that whatever he’d swallowed had not been Blueberry. He hadn’t paid much heed to the taste of it, but it had felt squirrel-shaped. And the aftertaste was definitely not Blueberry’s.  
  
“You—! How dare you!” The second red squirrel ran toward them along a branch, glaring daggers at Blueberry and Papyrus in turn. With surprising speed, it closed the distance and then leaped at Papyrus. He didn’t really think a squirrel could do anything to hurt him, but it was intimidating enough that he took a step backward.  
  
Edge never reached him, though. Sans appeared suddenly, as if out of thin air, and batted the squirrel to the ground, then held him there with his foot. “Hey, Paps. I thought you were gonna actually patrol and not just play with squirrels all day.”  
  
“What are you doing here, Sans?”  
  
“I thought if there were two of us, we could play with squirrels more efficiently and get done faster. It seems like there are lots of squirrels that need to be played with.”  
  
Edge had been trying to shove Sans off of him, but it was a hopeless endeavor. “Get off of me!” he yelled at Sans. “I’ll cut you open!” he yelled at Papyrus.  
  
“Whoa, whoa, no need for threats!” Blueberry held up his hands in a calming gesture. “Red is fine! I told you, this fox is perfectly safe!”  
  
“He ATE him!” Edge’s voice broke into a sob. He clawed at the dirt, trying to get out from under Sans’s paw.  
  
“I know, Edge, relax! Look, I’ll go in after him. Then he won’t be so scared. Will that make you feel better?”  
  
“No. I’m going to rip you apart with my own claws,” Edge growled.  
  
“Calm down, Edge. It’ll be fine, you’ll see. Ready, Foxy?”  
  
“Uh?” Papyrus wasn’t sure what the benefit was of Blueberry going in to get Red, rather than just releasing Red as soon as possible.  
  
“Come on, I’m not gonna let Red have all the fun!”  
  
Really? That was his reasoning? Papyrus was starting to have doubts about Blueberry’s judgment. Although perhaps he should have been clued in the first time the squirrel had asked to be eaten. But he didn’t feel terribly scared of Edge, especially since the larger squirrel showed no sign of escaping from Sans’s paw. So he cooperatively opened his jaws again, as Blueberry dangled by his back paws from the branch, lining himself up carefully.  
  
Thankfully, Blue dropped onto Papyrus’s tongue and not directly down his throat. The fox still didn’t spend much time savoring him, because he wanted to put Edge’s mind at ease sooner rather than later. He swallowed, sending Blueberry to join Red in his stomach.  
  
Edge stared at him, jaws parted in shock, tears gathering in his eye sockets. Papyrus looked awkwardly at Sans, but Sans just shrugged at him. How long did Blueberry want to spend in there with Red? Should he let them out immediately so Edge could stop worrying, or should he give Blue a chance to calm Red down first? After a moment’s thought, he decided that Blue could always comfort Red after they were safely out of his stomach, and as for Edge, seeing Red upset and scared was probably better than thinking he was dead. He knelt down and hunched over to get a slightly better angle for squirrel regurgitation. He’d had a fair amount of practice with Blueberry by now, and it wasn’t much worse with two squirrels than one. Soon he had a pair of wet, slimy squirrels huddling in his paws.  
  
Blueberry uncurled on his own and reached over to shake Red’s shoulders. “See, Red? What did I tell you?”  
  
“Don’t touch me!” Red snapped, suddenly leaping onto Papyrus’s shoulder.  
  
Blueberry jumped after him, and Red ran across Papyrus’s back to his other shoulder. Blueberry continued the chase, and soon they were running in haphazard circles around Papyrus’s torso, vertical surfaces proving no obstacle to them so long as they could get a claw-hold in his scarf or fur.  
  
Papyrus watched in dismay, opened his mouth to admonish Blueberry, but then gave up. “Well, at least you can see that Red is alive and well,” he said, ignoring the squirrels’ antics as best he could and turning to address Edge.  
  
Edge wasn’t there, though. Sans was just slurping up a long red tail, gulping as Papyrus watched in disbelief.  
  
“Sans! What are you doing?!”  
  
Sans shrugged. “That wasn’t one of your squirrel friends.”   
  
“Yes he was! Red is Blueberry’s friend, and that is Red’s brother!”  
  
“He was threatening to kill you though.”  
  
“You can’t take squirrel threats seriously, Sans. What was he going to do? Throw acorns at me?”  
  
Red came to a halt on top of Papyrus’s head, and Blue crashed into him, knocking him down onto the fox’s nose. Red barely seemed to notice. “Boss!” he cried, leaping off onto the ground and scampering toward Sans.  
  
But he didn’t seem to know what to do next once he reached the gray fox. He stood on the ground in front of him, staring up forelornly. Sans leaned down and picked him up by the tail.  
  
“You wanna join your brother?” Sans asked.  
  
“Sans!” Papyrus scolded, but no one paid attention.  
  
Red hung there, looking away, blushing a little, not resisting. Sans opened his jaws, and the squirrel started, but then went still again as Sans laid him on his tongue.  
  
“Sans, stop that.” Papyrus folded his arms and his ears.  
  
“Wow, I guess he really liked it.” Blueberry lay on his front on top of Papyrus’s head, watching.  
  
“No, he thinks his brother is dead,” Papyrus argued.  
  
“Why would he think that? You just ate _him_ and _he’s_ not dead!”  
  
“Sans, you had better not hurt those squirrels!”  
  
Sans mumbled something around the squirrel in his mouth.  
  
“Sans, I can’t understand you when you talk with your mouth full.”  
  
Sans hesitated a moment and then gulped the red squirrel down.  
  
“That’s gross, Sans. I _just_ ate him!”  
  
Sans waved away his hygienic concerns. “I said, so they’re officially your friends now, even though one of ‘em threatened to kill you _and_ Blueberry?”  
  
“Yes. I told you, Red is Blueberry’s new friend, and Edge is his brother. Any brother of a friend of my friend is a friend of mine, and off the menu.”  
  
“Okay, fine. I wasn’t really gonna hurt ‘em. That Edge squirrel just deserved a good scare after what he said.”  
  
Papyrus frowned, finding Sans’s justification dubious. “Very well. Go ahead and let them out, please.”  
  
“I dunno, Paps. I think they’re having a tearful brotherly reunion in there. Maybe we should give ‘em some privacy.”  
  
Blueberry laughed with delight. “That’s all the more reason you should let them out now. I won’t ever let Red live it down!”  
  
Sans laughed too. “Good point. Gimme a second.” He turned away from the others while he hacked the squirrels back up, but quickly stepped aside so they could see the two brothers clinging to each other, eyes squeezed closed in terror.  
  
Red was the first to recover, opening his eyes and looking around as well as he could with Edge hugging him tight against his chest. “Uh. Boss?”  
  
Edge just curled tighter around him, his tail wrapping around them both.  
  
“Boss, wake up. I think we’re alive.”  
  
“Don’t be stupid, Red. We were eaten by foxes. You were somehow eaten by TWO foxes, I think.”  
  
“Yeah—yeah, I was. But think about it. In order to get eaten by the second fox, I had to survive being eaten by the first fox. So what’s to say we couldn’t survive the second fox too?”  
  
“Squirrels don’t generally survive being eaten, Red. Don’t let that blue squirrel fill your skull with garbage.”  
  
“I know how it sounds, Boss, but look around you. I’m pretty sure we’ve been, uh, un-eaten.”  
  
Blueberry and the two foxes had been keeping silent, not wanting to interrupt the brothers’ conversation, but now Blueberry chimed in. “See, Red? I told you it was perfectly safe!”  
  
Papyrus stepped closer to the red squirrels, still lying on the ground where Sans had left them. Edge had finally opened his eyes and looked up at him, his expression blank.  
  
“I’m sorry if you were scared unnecessarily,” Papyrus said. “I realize that Blueberry’s methods are a bit, er … unorthodox.”  
  
Edge scrambled to his feet, pulling Red up along with him and pushing his smaller brother protectively behind him. “If you ever touch Red again, I’ll—”  
  
“You’ll do nothing,” Sans finished for him, showing his teeth.  
  
Edge glared at both foxes, and started to back away, pushing Red ahead of him. As soon as they were out of pouncing range, Edge turned and ran for the nearest tree, quickly disappearing behind the trunk. Papyrus caught a glimpse of him jumping from a branch to another tree before losing track of him in the multilevel maze of branches. Red looked doubtfully back over his shoulder before following after him, although at a less frantic pace.  
  
“Don’t be a stranger, Red!” Blueberry called after him.  
  
“I doubt we’ll see those two around here again.” Sans shoved his paws into his pockets.  
  
“I don’t know.” Blueberry smiled, still perched on top of Papyrus’s head. “I think we hit it off pretty well.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blueberry comes to Sans for help.

“Sans! You gotta help me!”  
  
Sans reluctantly opened his eyes. He recognized Blueberry’s voice, but he couldn’t imagine any squirrel problem that would justify pounding on the foxes’ window like that. He would have ignored it out of spite except for the slight possibility that the squirrel was here to tell him Papyrus was in some kind of trouble.  
  
“Stop that racket. What is it?” He sat up, slipping Slim into his usual position in his pocket without even waking him.  
  
“There’s a wolf in the forest and—and they got Stretch!”  
  
Sans’s ears folded back. He’d promised not to eat Blue’s brother, but it was hard to make himself actually care what happened to him. “So?”  
  
“So it’s your territory, isn’t it? You gotta drive out the wolves and rescue my brother!” Blue pressed his little hands against the glass of the window. At least he’d stopped banging on it.  
  
“It’s probably just Undyne.” Sans started to lie down again. She shouldn’t be hunting in his and Papyrus’s territory, really, but on the other hand, he wasn’t convinced the squirrel actually knew where their borders were. She might just be nearby. And what did he care if she ate Stretch? He had a better squirrel. He reached into his pocket to pet Slim, who rolled over and hugged his fingers. Much cuter than Stretch. Sans’s irritation melted away in the face of Slim’s sleepy affection. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to see if there was anything to be done for Stretch, if only for Blueberry’s sake. If Blueberry was sad, that would make Papyrus sad too. “Okay, I’ll go check. But if she caught him outside our territory, there might not be anything I can do.” In fact, there were a lot of reasons he might not be able to save Stretch, but there was no need to torture Blueberry with the complete list. Mainly the fact that he might already be eaten and digested.  
  
Perhaps Blueberry was already aware of the uncertainty. “Please hurry,” he said, hopping back and forth as Sans got to his feet and came out the front door.  
  
“Don’t everyone thank me at once,” Sans grumbled, but he held out his arm for Blueberry to climb up onto his shoulder. “Where did you see the wolf?”  
  
***  
  
“Alphys? What are you doin’ here?”  
  
“Oh! Sans! I’m—I’m sorry, I—I know I shouldn’t be in this part of the forest but…” The thickset yellow-furred wolf avoided meeting his eyes, backing away a couple steps. She kept her hands behind her back.  
  
“What’s that you’ve got?”  
  
“It’s n-n-nothing!” Alphys was alarmed.  
  
“It doesn’t smell like nothing.” Sans crossed his arms and looked up at her—she was small for a wolf, but he was also on the small side. His tail waved in annoyance.  
  
“Please don’t be mad at me, I know it’s poaching but I needed this specific squirrel!” Alphys said all at once in a rush. She brought the squirrel out in front of her. As Sans might have guessed from Blueberry’s story, it was Stretch. He squirmed frantically, stopped to stare at Sans, but didn’t call out for help. Perhaps he didn’t think Sans would lift a finger to save him.  
  
“Brother!” Blueberry jumped out of Sans’s hood, where he’d hidden as they approached the wolf, and perched on the fox’s shoulder, leaning forward to get as close to Stretch as possible.  
  
Alphys stared. “Sans? Why do you—? You’ve got something on you, there.”  
  
“You first. Why do you need that particular squirrel and not just any old squirrel?”  
  
“Well, it’s a long story.”  
  
“I got time. I even got a snack in case I get hungry in the middle.”  
  
Blueberry glared at him.  
  
“Al?”  
  
The wolf sighed in defeat. “It all started on our anniversary. Undyne got me a present! It was, uh, a squirrel.”  
  
“What, like a snack?”  
  
“Well, yeah, pretty much. But I wanted to keep it, because it was my anniversary present from her, you know? So now it’s kind of like, my pet.”  
  
“So? You want a friend for it or somethin’?” That didn’t explain why she needed Stretch rather than some other random squirrel.  
  
“Um, well, sort of…”  
  
Stretch was trying to pull himself loose now, but apparently Alphys had an iron grip. Blueberry watched with concern.  
  
“Sort of?” Sans prompted when it didn’t seem like she would continue.  
  
“I, um… heard the squirrel crying one day, and… he didn’t want to tell me, but eventually I got him to admit it.”  
  
“Admit what?” Sans tried to stay patient, because Alphys was an old friend and also a wolf.  
  
“That he missed his brother! I guess he thought—if I knew he was unhappy I would just eat him? Or if we caught his brother we’d eat him? And of course, if I’d caught them _before_ I probably would’ve! But why would I eat his brother, that wouldn’t help anything, and I can’t eat _him_ now that he’s my _pet_ —”  
  
“Why not?” said Sans.  
  
“Pets aren’t _food_ —”  
  
“They could be both. Right, Blue?”  
  
Blue smiled back at him, but gasped with shock when Sans raised his paw to pluck the squirrel off his shoulder. “Not _now_ , Sans! My brother is watching! You _know_ he hates this! Besides, Papyrus said—”  
  
“Sans, what are you—” Alphys watched in shock as Sans dropped the blue squirrel into his mouth.  
  
Sans slurped up Blueberry’s tail and swallowed him quickly. “You were saying? About your pet squirrel’s brother?”  
  
“You—you had a pet squirrel too?” Alphys was so startled that she loosened her grip on Stretch, who dropped to the ground, unnoticed. He ran a few steps toward Sans, then looked back at the wolf, and finally ran for the nearest tree.  
  
“Yeah, fine, I admit it. I have a pet squirrel too.” Sans shoved his hands in his pockets.  
  
“You mean _had_ ,” said Alphys.  
  
“No, I mean _have_. Finish your story why doncha?”  
  
“Oh. Oh no, I’ve let him escape.” Alphys looked down at her empty paws and the ground nearby.  
  
“Relax. I don’t think that was your squirrel’s brother.” Sans looked up at Stretch, watching them from a branch well out of reach, and Alphys followed his gaze. “You don’t have another brother I don’t know about, do ya?” He was confident they didn’t, or he would have heard about it from Blueberry or Papyrus.  
  
Stretch glared down at him, and Sans thought for a moment that he might not answer. “No,” he spat.  
  
“That squirrel isn’t cute at all anyway. I’d give ya the blue one, but Papyrus is kinda attached to him.”  
  
“The blue one—that you just ate?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
Alphys was clearly confused. Sans grinned, amused, then softened. “But if the right squirrel is in our territory, we can keep an eye out for it for ya. What’s it look like?”  
  
“Well, it’s tall and it’s got orange fur—so just like that one, I guess.”  
  
Sans maintained his grin, but it took an effort. He had an idea who she might be looking for. “And what’s your squirrel look like? Does he have a name?”  
  
“Oh, right. He’s small and cute, with purple fur, and his name’s Razz.”  
  
“What’s his brother’s name?”  
  
“Uh. He didn’t say; he just said ‘my brother.’ Probably because he didn’t figure a squirrel would come up to a wolf just because they called.”  
  
Sans glanced up at Stretch, listening from the branch above. “Well, I’ll see what I can do. Papyrus knows these woods really well, and if there are any squirrels like that out here, I’m sure he can find ‘em.”  
  
“R-really?”  
  
“Sure thing.”  
  
“You won’t eat him, will you? Promise?”  
  
Sans grimaced. “I won’t hurt ‘im.” Inside his pocket, he ran his fingers across Slim’s fluffy tail. He hadn’t reacted, so he must have slept through the whole thing. Either that or he wasn’t really the squirrel she was looking for after all.


	6. Chapter 6

Stretch followed Sans home. Sans kept seeing him jump from branch to branch out of the corner of his eye. It was just as well, since he wanted to ask all Papyrus’s squirrel friends what they knew about Razz. That didn’t mean he couldn’t give Stretch a hard time.  
  
“What are you followin’ me for?” he said as they neared the edge of the forest. “Gonna come all the way into town? I can’t guarantee your safety.”  
  
“You know why I’m following you. You still have my brother.”  
  
“Oh yeah, I forgot.” Sans smirked at the outraged chitter this drew from Stretch. “Relax, he’s fine. But if you wanna make it to our house in one piece, maybe you should come ride in my pocket.”  
  
“I’d rather—”  
  
“Die? Because if you trot along behind me like that, you’re likely to get pounced on.”  
  
“Blueberry made it.”  
  
“Yeah, he got lucky. You shouldn’t really let him do that.”  
  
“I’m just sayin’, it’d be a shame if I got home and coughed him up and had to tell him you got yourself eaten by some random fox. He’ll prob’ly blame himself, since you were here in town tryin’ to make sure he was okay.” Sans looked away casually at the sky, hiding his amusement. Stretch probably had no way of knowing how dangerous the town really was, and with his ability to teleport, there was little real risk so long as he stayed alert and out in the open.  
  
Stretch grumbled. “Ugh, fine! You know, you could just let him out here in the forest instead!”  
  
“Yeah, but I want to talk to him in the comfort of my own home.”  
  
Stretch continued grumbling, but he climbed down a tree trunk, head first, and then scrambled up Sans’s leg.  
  
“Not that one,” said Sans, putting a paw over the opening to his pocket. “Slim’s in there. You get the other side.”  
  
Stretch glared at him and climbed across his stomach to dive into his other pocket. A squirrel on each side. Plus Blueberry in the middle. Nice and balanced. He grinned with satisfaction as he made his way into the house.  
  
Papyrus was already home. “Where have you been? Dinner will be ready soon.”  
  
“I already ate.”  
  
“What did I tell you about sneaking off to Grillby’s and spoiling your appetite for—”  
  
“Not Grillby’s. I still want dinner.”  
  
“It’s a squirrel, isn’t it?” Papyrus asked flatly. “Which one? And give him back, please.”  
  
“Okay, just a sec.”  
  
Papyrus got a small towel ready while Sans regurgitated Blueberry into his paws.  
  
“Here you go.” Sans handed him over and Papyrus dried him off. Papyrus clearly disapproved, but Blueberry grinned up at them, as if he’d just been having a refreshing nap. “I’ve got one more,” said Sans, digging into his pocket for Stretch. The orange squirrel looked distinctly nervous while dangling from Sans’s paw.  
  
“Is there a particular reason you brought home all the squirrels?” Papyrus asked, as Stretch pulled himself up onto Sans’s arm and then made a leap for the safety of Papyrus’s towel.  
  
“Yeah, I wanna ask them about something Alphys said.”  
  
“Oh!” Blueberry perked up, tail twitching. “The squirrel she was looking for! I didn’t hear how that ended because you ate me. I see you got my brother back from her, though. Thank you, Sans, I knew you wouldn’t let us down!”  
  
“What did Alphys say?” Papyrus seemed at a loss to think of anything Alphys would want with squirrels.  
  
“She’s looking for a particular squirrel,” Sans said, a little apprehensive. He felt like the whole thing was kind of silly, but he’d said he would help.  
  
“Yes? Which squirrel is she looking for? Maybe Blueberry and Stretch know him.”  
  
“Or Slim,” said Stretch.  
  
“Yes, or Slim. Where is he?”  
  
Sans rested his paw over his pocket, lightly. “He’s sleepin’.”  
  
“Well, you’d better wake him up. He sleeps too much anyway.”  
  
Sans sighed and pulled the squirrel out of his pocket. Slim didn’t wake up, only cuddling into Sans’s paw pads.   
  
Blueberry jumped over to Sans’s arm. “Slim, wake up! We want to ask you something!”  
  
“Let him rest,” said Sans, covering the curled-up squirrel with his other hand.  
  
“But for all you know, he could be the squirrel that wolf was lookin’ for,” Stretch pointed out. “Orange fur and tall, right? You mistook him for me once, so maybe she mistook me for him.” Sans bared a single fang at him.  
  
“Did she say the name of the squirrel she was looking for?” Blue asked, leaning against Sans’s protective paw.  
  
“She didn’t know.”  
  
“But she told you his brother’s name,” Stretch reminded him, climbing up to sit on Papyrus’s shoulder. “What was it again? Sounded kinda familiar.”  
  
Sans sighed. “It was Razz.”  
  
Slim stirred.  
  
“Where have I heard that name before?” Stretch pondered. Sans was sure he was doing this on purpose.  
  
“That’s what Slim said when he first saw me, after Sans caught him!” Blueberry squeaked, loud and triumphant at having solved the mystery.  
  
“Oh, right,” said Stretch. “And she said he was small and cute—like you, Blue—but with purple fur.”  
  
“That sounds like the squirrel I saw Slim hanging out with before!” Blueberry hopped on Sans’s arm with delight.  
  
Slim pulled himself out from between Sans’s paws, groggy and confused. “What did you say about Razz?”  
  
“He’s alive! Your brother!” Blueberry just kept getting more excited.  
  
“What?” Slim scrambled up Sans’s arm. “Where is he?”  
  
“The wolves have him,” Stretch said. “They didn’t eat him. They kept him for a pet.”  
  
“Wow, Slim, just like you!” Blueberry found every aspect of this increasingly delightful.  
  
Slim looked up hesitantly at Sans, who was showing much less enthusiasm. “Can I—can we go see him?”  
  
Sans hesitated for a moment, then answered breezily. “Of course. You think I’d keep you from your brother?”  
  
***  
  
Razz found himself waking up in darkness. Had he fainted? It couldn’t be. He was too tough to react like that, no matter what danger he faced. The last thing he remembered was teasing a big blue-green wolf that thought it could catch him. There was no way—he was too fast—so why was he someplace dark that reeked of wolf scent? And why couldn’t he move? Was this—had he been eaten, and was this dark, tight place the inside of the wolf’s stomach? He shivered at the thought, but dismissed it. It wasn’t wet and close like he’d imagine a stomach to be; the surface under him was hard and flat and smooth, and the reason he couldn’t move much was that his wrists and ankles were bound together behind his back.  
  
“Where am I? How dare you!” His voice echoed back at him in the small enclosed space.  
  
Nobody answered. He wriggled sideways until he found the wall, a smooth metallic surface curved like the inside of a half sphere, not much bigger than required to hold him, bisected by the floor. It was likely uniform all the way around, but he didn’t have anything better to do than explore it. But just as he started pushing himself along the edge, he heard voices. At first they were too quiet to make out, but they quickly grew closer.  
  
“Bon appetit!” said one, and the wall lifted away. Razz blinked in the sudden light, making out the forms of two wolves. The blue one must be the same one he remembered. What had she done to him? She must have cheated somehow to catch him and leave him here like this.  
  
“You cheater! Untie me and I’ll teach you a lesson!” he snarled at the blue wolf. If only his wrists had been bound in front he could have chewed through the ropes.  
  
“Wow, he’s feisty.” The yellow wolf peered at him uncertainly.  
  
“The feisty ones taste the best!” The blue one was proud of her catch.  
  
The yellow one licked her lips, encouraged, and reached out for Razz. He snapped at her, and her hand hovered over him, as she tried to figure out how to pick him up without getting bitten.  
  
“Here,” said the blue one, expertly snatching him up and dangling him by the tail. He writhed and twisted, trying to reach her paw, but he couldn’t touch her. “Say ‘aaah’!”  
  
The yellow wolf giggled, and when Razz looked in her direction he got a face full of her tongue, bordered by sharp white teeth, leading back toward—well, he’d rather not think about that. The momentary paralysis brought on by surprise—certainly not fear—was enough that he missed his chance to resist further before finding himself lying face-down on her tongue, her jaws closing around him, wolf saliva and definitely not tears wetting his cheek bones, and if he failed to hold back a terrified-sounding squeak, well, it wasn’t as if Slim or anyone else he actually knew would find out about it. He squeezed his eyes shut. Slim was a grown squirrel and could take care of himself. He would be fine without his brother to look after him. He had to be…  
  
“What’s wrong? Is it not good? I knew I shoulda tasted—”  
  
The blue wolf’s voice penetrated his despair as the yellow wolf’s tongue and jaws fell away.  
  
“Oh, no, no, it’s really good! I just—would it be bad if I—wanted to keep it?”  
  
Razz found himself lying in the yellow wolf’s paws. It would have been pretty comfortable if he hadn’t been tied up. Blinking the liquid from his eyes, he looked up at the wolf.  
  
“You know what they say about having your cake and eating it too,” the blue wolf was saying.  
  
“Y-yeah, I mean, maybe I’d rather—have it, than eat it.”  
  
The wolves looked at each other, the yellow one blushing awkwardly, the blue one taken aback. Razz couldn’t pass up this chance to attempt escape and tried to roll out of the yellow wolf’s paws, but she just caged him in with her other paw as he rolled toward the edge of the one he was on.  
  
“Well, I guess—” said the blue wolf.  
  
Razz bit one of the enclosing fingers. The yellow wolf yelped and pulled her paw away.  
  
“—but not if it’s gonna bite you.” The blue wolf frowned at him. Her fangs were long, visible even with her mouth closed. Razz involuntarily shrank back, pressing against the yellow wolf’s paw pads.  
  
“No, no, it’s okay. It’s just scared. Look, it didn’t even draw blood.” The yellow wolf cradled him to her chest, the wolf scent even more overpowering with her fur in his face. “It’s just a squirrel; what harm can it do?”  
  
“I’ll show you what harm a squirrel can do!” Razz growled, but if the wolves heard him they didn’t show any sign.  
  
“I know! Stick it in that old bird cage.” The blue wolf grinned, warming up to the idea of keeping him. “Then it can’t cause trouble. And if you get hungry sometime and don’t wanna go out and hunt, you can always eat it after all.”  
  
***  
  
“Here you go, Kiyo-chan.” The yellow wolf—her name was Alphys, or at least that’s what the other one had called her—shoved some peanuts through the bars of the cage, without opening the door.  
  
“Don’t call me that.” Razz reached through the bars to swipe at her hand, but it was far out of reach. At least she’d untied him when she’d put him in here. He definitely wasn’t intimidated by the way the much-larger wolf could easily snap the ropes that had held him helpless.  
  
“That’s your name, though! You’re named after one of the side characters from Mew Mew K—”  
  
“No it’s not! How dare you? You can’t just go around handing out new names, without even asking, and especially not horrible nerdy names like that!”  
  
“It’s a good name! It’s really cute. And Kiyosada is a great character! He starts off seeming like just comic relief, but as the show goes on—”  
  
Razz covered his ears. “I don’t care! There’s no way some cartoon character is cool enough to share a name with me.” Especially if Razz was named after him and not the other way around. “It’s insulting!”  
  
The wolf huffed, crossing her arms. “Well what kind of name do you want then?”  
  
“I already have a name!”  
  
“Oh, really?” Alphys’s ears perked up in surprise. “I suppose I never thought about squirrels having names before.”  
  
“Of course I do! And it’s Razz. So you’d better call me by it, or else.”  
  
“Oh, like a raspberry! That’s adorable!”  
  
“No! I’m not adorable, I’m fierce!”  
  
“Okay, I’ll call you Razz, if you promise not to bite me anymore.”  
  
Razz growled, tail flicking in irritation. “Fine, I won’t bite you. Unless you manhandle me.”  
  
“See, we’re gonna have a great time. Can you see the screen from there? I’ll show you the episodes with Kiyosada. Maybe you’ll change your mind about the name!”  
  
“No I won’t,” said Razz, but he sat down and nibbled on the peanuts as she started up the video.  
  
***  
  
“Wow, he’s really tame,” said Undyne, the blue wolf, the first time she saw Razz sitting docilely on Alphys’s shoulder.  
  
“He’s a good boy. Mostly,” said Alphys, with a nervous laugh. “He just has to stay on the leash.”  
  
Of course, the first time Alphys had fallen asleep with him out of the cage, he’d explored her room for escape routes, and then hidden, hoping to get out when she eventually opened the door, or perhaps gnaw a hole in it if that proved impossible. But she’d been so worried and upset, he hadn’t run fast enough when she’d found him under a pile of clothes and plush anime characters. Since then she’d made sure to put a leash on him whenever he was out of the cage, and whatever it was made of, it was too tough for him to chew through.  
  
“Well, he looks really cute.”  
  
“I don’t look cute,” Razz protested. “I look handsome! Or dapper! But not cute!” He couldn’t reach the bow in the light blue ribbon around his neck, but he straightened the one on his tail. If it was crooked that might make it look more ‘cute’ and less sharp.  
  
“Okay, okay. You don’t look cute. You look adorable!” The blue wolf laughed at him, and he glared at her until Alphys distracted him with a peanut.  
  
***  
  
“I don’t know why you’re so attached to that bandanna,” Alphys complained. “Sure, it matches your fur, but that just makes it blend in too much. These ribbons are much c—cooler. And it’s got all these rips and tears in it.”  
  
Razz glared, suspecting she’d just herself from saying ‘cuter.’ “I had a life before I met you, you know. This is all I have left.”  
  
Alphys paused, as if she hadn’t considered that before. “Well, you’re better off here, though, aren’t you? You’ve got a warm place to sleep, plenty of food and entertainment and clothes—once I finish adding the tail holes—and you’re safe from predators. Except us, ha ha. And we wouldn’t eat you—unless we were really starving. What does the forest have to compare to that?”  
  
Razz looked away. He couldn’t tell her about Slim. What if she went after him? He wouldn’t put his brother’s freedom at risk like that. Besides, he didn’t really want Slim to see him like this, no matter how good he looked in these ribbons.  
  
“Here, try this one on.” She pulled something from the box of doll clothes Undyne had brought, and placed it inside Razz’s cage. The door was open; he couldn’t try on clothes while wearing a leash, but by now she trusted him not to bolt out. “It’s a dress so it will fit over your tail without a hole.” She waited while he pulled it on and pushed his arms out the sleeves. “You look fabulous!” She held up a hand mirror so he could see.  
  
“Of course I do!” He straightened out the skirt. “I still think I could just wear the bandanna over it.”  
  
“No, no, the colors clash.”  
  
“If it doesn’t clash with my fur, it won’t clash with my bandanna!”  
  
“That’s different!” Alphys bared her teeth, but he didn’t back down, glaring at her defiantly through the bars of his cage. She sighed in defeat. “All right, fine. Wear the bandanna. But not when anyone’s gonna see you.”  
  
“Who’s going to see me?”  
  
“Actually, I was thinking of making a window box, so you can see outside, and monsters walking by could see how cu—cool you look.”  
  
“No—no, please, I don’t want anyone to see me like this!” It was unlikely Slim would happen to walk by the wolves’ house. Razz wasn’t even really sure how far it was from the forest; he’d only seen Alphys’s room since the first day when she’d decided not to eat him. But word might get out, and if Slim did somehow find out, he’d either get himself killed trying to get here, or actually make it here and see what Razz had been reduced to.  
  
“Oh, is the dress too frilly? Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you look good and not overly cute.”  
  
“No, the dress is fine. I just—remember, I’m—I’m a pet now.” Razz looked away. “I don’t want anyone to know how—how far I’ve fallen. Especially not…”  
  
“What are you talking about? Any squirrel would be lucky to be our pet.”  
  
He turned back to her, grimacing. “Sometimes I wish you’d just eaten me.”  
  
“What? Why? I thought you were happy here!”  
  
His tail flicked nervously. “I—I am, but—I’m still a prisoner.”  
  
“Well, what would you do if I let you go?”  
  
“I would try to get back to—” No, he wouldn’t just try. He would succeed! He rephrased it: “I would go back to the forest where I lived before you caught me.”  
  
“But why? Why not just stay here? We have a lot of anime to watch still, and you have everything you need!”  
  
“Not everything.”  
  
“What is it? What’s so important that you’d give up a cushy life and trek all the way back to the forest, dodging wolves and foxes and hawks?”  
  
He looked away again. She reached into the cage and pulled him out. The way she stroked his skull told him she didn’t mean it to be intimidating, but being held right in front of a wolf’s muzzle couldn’t help but make him a little nervous. He glimpsed the white of her teeth as she spoke. “Come on, Razz. We’re friends now, aren’t we? You can tell me.”  
  
He twisted around to try and climb off her paw and back into his cage, but she blocked him with her other paw. He climbed up the second paw, only to encounter the first again, and gave up, sitting down on her paw pad. “It’s—it’s my brother,” he finally admitted.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone goes to visit Alphys

Alphys met them outside her house.  
  
“Hello, Alphys!” Papyrus was in the lead and greeted her first.  
  
“Er—! Hi, um, Papyrus.” She gave a little wave that was maybe not necessary when they were already so close. Sans’s habitual grin dipped down slightly. She seemed nervous, even for her.  
  
“Hey Al,” he said, catching up with his brother. “Paps, why don’t you introduce your friends?”  
  
“Oh! Of course! Alphys, this is Blueberry and Stretch. Squirrels, this is Alphys!”  
  
“Hi!” Blueberry greeted the wolf cheerfully from on top of Papyrus’s head. Alphys was a smallish wolf so he was close to her eye level. Stretch peered out from the safety of Papyrus’s scarf, his tail flashing orange as he turned to burrow deeper into it.  
  
“Oh. H-hello…” Alphys wrung her hands awkwardly. “Which—which one is, um, the brother?”  
  
“Neither. I got that one in my pocket here.” Sans was a little surprised Slim hadn’t come out on his own already. How could he sleep when he was going to see his brother again? Maybe he was just afraid of Alphys. He started to reach for the squirrel.  
  
“No, no, leave him, I—I don’t want to bother him,” Alphys protested, and he stayed his hand.  
  
“But Al, he’s excited to see his bro again.” Maybe she thought he would run off and escape; squirrels could be flighty, and apparently Alphys wasn’t giving her pet the same level of freedom as Slim enjoyed, largely because he didn’t do anything with it except nap. “All right if we come inside?” he proposed.  
  
“Er—! Well, the thing is, you—you may as well not, because…”  
  
“What’s up, Alphys?” Sans narrowed his eyes at her, ears half folded.  
  
“I’m sorry to put you to all the trouble, but—after you came all this way and all—”  
  
“It ain’t that far, Al. What’re you trying to say?”  
  
“I’m afraid I—I changed my mind—”  
  
“About lettin’ us see Razz?”  
  
“About eating him.”  
  
Sans’s ears folded back the rest of the way. “What’re you saying, Al?”  
  
“H-here.” She held out a scrap of purple cloth.  
  
Sans reached for it, and held still as Slim climbed out of his pocket and along his arm. The squirrel hesitated, then snatched the bit of fabric from the wolf’s hand. He sat on Sans’s arm to examine it briefly, then turned wide, tear-filled eye sockets to the fox. Tired of holding his arm out straight, Sans scooped him up and cupped him in his hands. The squirrel curled up against his pads, hugging the purple bandanna to his chest.  
  
Sans sighed. He had no right to criticize anyone for eating a squirrel, but he couldn’t downplay it and rub salt in Slim’s wounds either. “I guess—”  
  
“You mean you ate him?” Blueberry interrupted, perched with his tail wrapped around Papyrus’s ear.  
  
Alphys stared at him for a second, ears cocked at mismatched angles, then nodded.   
  
Stretch remained hidden in Papyrus’s scarf, but the fox’s face fell, making Blueberry stumble as his ears flattened. Blueberry looked concerned for a moment, then brightened. “That’s okay! We can wait until he’s ready to come back out.”  
  
“Uh, Blue,” said Sans.  
  
“Yes, Sans? Don’t tell me your schedule is packed today and you don’t have time to wait!”  
  
“That’s not—I don’t think that’s quite what she meant.”  
  
Blueberry stared at him expectantly.  
  
“I think she meant—”  
  
“He’s gone,” Slim squeaked from Sans’s hands, drawing everyone’s attention. Sans opened his hands so Slim could see who he was talking to, but the squirrel stayed curled up in a ball, only shifting enough to meet Sans’s eyes from behind his fluffy tail. “Sans, I—If my brother isn’t—I don’t really care anymore. I might as well be eaten too.”  
  
“Don’t say that.” Sans stroked his thumb along the furry tail, but the gesture made the squirrel flinch.  
  
“And—if you don’t mind—I’d like to be with my brother, so… If I can make a request… you might as well just give me to the wolf, too.”  
  
Sans curled his fingers around the squirrel possessively. “I’m not—”  
  
“Oh, hey nerds! Why didn’t you tell me you were here?” A larger, bluer, one-eyed wolf emerged from the house. “Oh, you brought snacks!” She grabbed Blueberry by the tail and lifted him over her open, slavering jaws.  
  
“Oh! This is very sudden,” the squirrel chirped, fists pressed to his teeth in shy surprise.  
  
“Uh, no.” Sans shifted Slim to his right hand so he could make a subtle gesture, and Blue somehow slipped from her grasp and fell at an angle back onto Papyrus’s forehead. “These aren’t snacks, Undyne. They’re Pap’s friends.”  
  
“What? You mean you have more than one pet squirrel?” Undyne sneered a little to cover her embarrassment at the near miss.  
  
“Not pets—friends!” Papyrus corrected brightly.  
  
“Eh?” Undyne sneered more. “Well, whatever. Come in and let your pets have their play date already.”  
  
Sans raised one eyebrow. “I thought that just got canceled, since you two don’t have a squirrel anymore.”  
  
“What’re you talking about, Sans? He’s right in there,” Undyne said, not noticing Alphys’s frantic gestures for her to stop.  
  
“Al? What’s really going on?” Sans frowned at her through lidded eyes.  
  
Alphys’s shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry. I—I didn’t want—I thought if he saw his brother, he’d want to go stay with you guys, instead.”  
  
Sans hunched down guiltily. He’d had the same thought, that Slim would insist on staying with Alphys. “Well, maybe. But we got no right to—we can’t keep them apart; they’re brothers.”  
  
“H-he’s alive?” Slim asked, pulling himself up to see over Sans’s fingers. No wonder his voice was small and fearful with so many predators towering over him.  
  
“Is that the brother, then? Of course he’s alive.” Undyne wrinkled her nose, which had the side effect of showing all her teeth. “Come on in already. He’s waiting.”  
  
***  
  
“Alphys? Where’s my bandanna? I don’t want—” A purple squirrel was sitting on the table, a mint green ribbon tied around his neck in a bow that spread behind his skull, and a matching one on the base of his tail. He stopped when he realized it wasn’t only Alphys who had entered the room.  
  
“Razz!” Slim darted down Sans’s leg and bounded onto the table. It was the fastest Sans had ever seen him move, faster than when he was running for his own life.  
  
“Slim!” Razz was bowled over by the impact of his brother, rolling across the table in a yin-yang formation of purple and orange tails, until his leash was pulled taut.  
  
Slim didn’t seem to notice, but Sans made his voice casual and asked, “You keep him on a leash?”  
  
“Well, when he’s out of his cage,” Alphys answered, fidgeting.  
  
“You keep him in a cage?” Sans couldn’t stop his ears perking up in surprise.  
  
“Well, yeah. I mean. If he gets out, he could get eaten or stepped on or something.”  
  
“Huh,” said Sans. Maybe Slim wouldn’t want to stay here after all. But what if he wanted Sans to get his brother out of here somehow, when he realized the conditions he was living under? The wolves were the foxes’ friends, but when push came to shove Sans couldn’t really assert his will over theirs.  
  
“What happened to you?” Slim asked, finally sitting up and releasing his brother. He glanced at the leash and proceeded to ignore it, even as Razz moved a little closer to the side of the table where it was tied to a nearby chair, to give himself some slack.  
  
“I—Never mind that, what happened to _you_?”  
  
“Got caught by a fox.” Slim flicked his tail toward Sans.  
  
“And he didn’t eat you?”  
  
“No, he did.”  
  
“Why not?”  
  
“No, he just said I _did_ eat him,” Sans corrected the squirrel.  
  
“That doesn’t make sense.” Razz glared at him. “He’s right here, alive.”  
  
Sans shrugged.  
  
“And then I kinda just … stayed with them,” Slim continued, glossing over the inconsistency.  
  
“You stayed with the foxes?” Razz didn’t seem too surprised; Alphys had probably told him that part.  
  
“I, uh. Couldn’t pass up the free room and board.” Slim shrugged sheepishly.  
  
“A quite reasonable decision!” Papyrus interjected supportively. “It may be hard to come by as a squirrel, but every monster deserves a safe place to stay and enough to eat. Besides, he was—he had been through rather a lot, seeing you taken by wolves and then getting caught by my brother. I’m sure he was none too gentle!”  
  
Sans shrugged again. “I said I was sorry. We’re pals now, right?”  
  
Slim tossed a smile over his shoulder at Sans.  
  
“He probably woulda been faster if he hadn’t been upset about you and the wolves.”  
  
“I can’t leave you alone for a minute!” Razz scolded his brother. “You should be able to get away from a fox, even if you are distracted!”  
  
“What can I say? I’m a good hunter,” said Sans.  
  
“You’re just incredibly lucky that they kept you for a pet instead of eating you.”  
  
“I did though,” Sans mumbled.  
  
Razz gave him an annoyed glance. He hadn’t been able to make sense of that fact, so he didn’t believe it. “And I guess I’m just as lucky. Although …” He took his brother by the shoulders and examined him for a leash or collar. “What’s it like with the foxes? Do you have a big—where do they keep you?”  
  
“Ah, in their house?” Slim hadn’t quite understood the question. “Sometimes I ride around in Sans’s pocket.”  
  
Razz grated his teeth, tail flicking in irritation. “Where in their house?”  
  
Slim cocked his head in incomprehension.  
  
“Where’s your cage? How big is it?”  
  
“I don’t have a cage.”  
  
This was evidently the wrong answer, as Razz let go of Slim and turned his back, curling his tail around himself.  
  
Slim flinched and reached out to him. “It’s just because I’m so lazy, they don’t need one. I wasn’t—I didn’t see much point in living after you were—gone, so—I really was lucky I met these guys. I don’t think I was gonna survive next winter by myself, and—with them I can just sleep in Sans’s pocket all day and still be provided for. Pathetic, isn’t it?”  
  
“Not as pathetic as this,” Razz muttered, grasping the leash lightly.  
  
“They have to put that on you because you’d actually do something if it wasn’t there.”  
  
Razz sulked in silence.  
  
“Oh, yeah, I have your bandanna!” Slim pulled it out of his jacket, and Razz thawed a little, allowing him to tie it over his mint ribbon.  
  
The squirrels kept talking quietly. Undyne seemed to have lost interest, wandering toward the kitchen. Papyrus’s voice drowned out whatever the squirrels were saying: “Oh! Undyne, you must be hungry! Since you tried to snack on Blueberry. I’d be happy to make something to repay your hospitality, if I can borrow your kitchen!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The squirrel fic continues at last!  
> Come pester me (nicely) to update fics at [my tumblr](http://nom-the-skel.tumblr.com).


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans is sort of considerate for a moment but actually handling things pretty badly overall.

“Would spaghetti be all right?” Papyrus’s brush waved eagerly.  
  
“Ah. No, thanks, Paps, I’m good—Actually, I’ve just remembered something I have to do.” Undyne disappeared into another room.  
  
“Alphys? What about you?”  
  
“Hey Paps, don’t you think maybe we’ve imposed long enough?” Sans interrupted.  
  
“But Sans! The squirrels just started their play date. They have a lot of catching up to do!”  
  
“Yeah, but they got all the time in the world to catch up. If Slim stays here.”  
  
“You’re leaving Slim here?” Blueberry, lying on top of Papyrus’s head, propped himself up on his arms.  
  
“Well.” Sans’s ears folded back, but he forced them into a neutral position. “He can go where he wants. And I assume he wants to be with his bro. He did ask me a few minutes ago to give him to Alphys so they could be together.”  
  
“That was when he thought his brother was dead,” Papyrus pointed out.  
  
“He’s not dead, though, so Slim can come visit him any time!” Blueberry concluded. “He doesn’t have to stay here.”  
  
“Are you sure he wants to stay here?” Stretch added from Papyrus’s shoulder. “With the leashes and the cages and all.”  
  
Sans shrugged. “I would. I mean, I’m not gonna force him. But he can do what he wants, and if I were him, I’d …” He trailed off, meeting Papyrus’s gaze, then waved a paw dismissively. “Anyway, maybe I can finally get a decent nap around here without that lump in my pocket. Come on, let’s go. Don’t you have a forest to patrol?” Sans turned and pushed through the front door, then teleported home before anyone caught up with him.  
  
***  
  
“Slim was quite hurt that you left without him, brother!”  
  
Sans rolled over so that his face was buried in the couch cushions.  
  
“You really should have asked him what he wanted to do!” Blueberry scolded from his spot on Papyrus’s head. “I asked him and he said he did want to stay with Razz. But you should have checked before you left!”  
  
“What do I care what a squirrel thinks?” Sans grumbled. “Besides, if I was wrong he coulda come back with you guys.”  
  
“What if he doesn’t want to stay, what if he just said that because he’s hurt you abandoned him?” Sans felt Blueberry’s little feet skitter onto his back. If he’d had any energy, he would have snapped at the squirrel.  
  
“Razz didn’t seem as happy to see him as I expected,” said Papyrus. “We shall have to go see how they’re doing sometime soon!”  
  
Sans turned his head so he wasn’t talking into the cushion. “He probably didn’t want Slim to see him held captive like that. He’ll get over it.”  
  
“You mean Razz doesn’t like being a pet? Even though he gets to wear those cute ribbons?” Blueberry seemed surprised. “But in that case, why don’t they both just come here?”  
  
“That’s an excellent idea!” Papyrus agreed. “If Razz was our pet, he’d have the run of the house, and Slim could stay here and still be with Razz.”  
  
“Nah.” Sans buried his face in the cushion again. “I’m not gonna take Alphys’s pet.”  
  
“Well—but what if he’d rather be our pet?”  
  
“He can’t just leave. You saw him on that leash.”  
  
“But surely if he asks the wolves to let him go—” Blueberry chirped too close to his ear.  
  
“Then they wouldn’t need a leash in the first place!” Sans snapped, rolling his shoulders so that Blueberry fell off.  
  
***  
  
“Sans! Any breakfast requests?” Papyrus called from the kitchen door.  
  
“Yeah. Blueberry pancakes.” Sans grinned toothily at the little squirrel perched on Papyrus’s shoulder.  
  
Papyrus rolled his eyes and turned away. He might actually make some, if there were any blueberries available.  
  
“That isn’t funny,” grumbled Stretch, who was stretched out along the back of the couch.  
  
“Does this look like a clothesline? Because you’re a wet blanket.”  
  
Stretch laughed, tail flicking. Sans reached up and gave it a tug, making him fall into the fox’s lap. The squirrel lay spread-eagle on his back, unresisting.  
  
“Not gonna skitter off and yell at me?”  
  
“Too much trouble.”  
  
“You think I’m too lazy to snap you up?”  
  
“You’d have to lift your entire head. And shoulders.”  
  
“You got a point,” Sans admitted. “And I can’t eat you right before breakfast. Spoil my appetite.” He curled a paw over the squirrel, who flinched but then relaxed. He hadn’t fallen so far as to show gratitude to Stretch, but it was nice having a squirrel cuddle with him again. It was mostly because Blueberry had stuck around to make sure Papyrus wasn’t lonely without Slim, but there was no reason Stretch couldn’t stay out of reach. Perhaps it was too much trouble. Or perhaps he was warming up to Sans a little.  
  
***  
  
“Hey, nerd! I got something for ya!”  
  
“Oh. Hey.” Sans smiled in greeting even though he wished Undyne had found Papyrus out on patrol (with the squirrels in tow) rather than him on his way back. He got on fine with Alphys, but even she couldn’t help being a little intimidating sometimes, just because she was a wolf. Whatever the gift was, Papyrus would probably like it better anyway. He and Undyne seemed to share a wavelength.  
  
“Since you got Alphys that particular squirrel she wanted! I don’t even know how you can tell them apart.”   
  
Undyne held out a box somewhat clumsily tied up in a ribbon. Accepting it, Sans pushed the ribbon aside and peeked in—more ribbons.  
  
“These are just the ones Alphys thought didn’t really match her squirrels’ fur. But I got ya something else, too!”  
  
Sans’s ears perked up as he realized she was still holding something. It must have been hidden behind the box. It looked up fearfully at him.  
  
“Wanna take them to your place and fix them up nice? I can’t really at home right now. Alphys thinks it would traumatize her pets.”  
  
It was Red, tied up in another ribbon, and on further inspection, Edge was there too, apparently unconscious.  
  
“They give you much of a fight?” Sans asked.  
  
“They were worthy opponents! One of ‘em anyway.” Undyne laughed and started toward Sans’s house. He trailed after. Papyrus would be furious if they ate his squirrel friends—but only if he found out. It wasn’t as if Slim would be around to make him feel guilty by being morally equivalent to any other squirrel. Blueberry left him alone for the most part—not quite brave enough to boss around a fox, when Papyrus could easily take care of it. And Stretch already thought he was a bloodthirsty predator, so he might as well be one.  
  
He followed Undyne into house and on into the kitchen. She lay the squirrels out on the counter.  
  
“I’m fine with ‘em raw,” he said, anxious that Papyrus could get back and catch him in this compromising situation.   
  
Red glared at him. He might have expected some help.  
  
“After I went to the trouble of catching them without dusting them? No, this is some kinda special occasion.” Undyne started going through the cabinets, assessing the state of the foxes’ metaphorical pantry.  
  
“If you insist,” said Sans, tamping down his nerves. Papyrus should have plenty of forest to patrol before he returned. He reached into his pocket, an unconscious urge to stroke Slim, but there was nobody there.  
  
***  
  
“I shoulda used string but it was kinda spur-of-the-moment,” said the wolf, plucking at the ribbon practically encasing Red. He cowered for a moment, then strained at his bonds, kicking at Edge. Why wouldn’t he wake up? At least he felt solid—aside from trying to rouse him, Red had to keep checking, afraid he’d find himself tied to a pile of dust at any moment.  
  
“I probably got some string somewhere,” the fox volunteered. Red stopped kicking to glare at him again.  
  
“Nah, it’s fine. This one’s asleep and the other one didn’t put up any fight to speak of.”  
  
The space next to Red was suddenly, alarmingly empty. The wolf had lifted Edge up, slicing the ribbon from his tail with her claws. Edge, being unconscious, had only been perfunctorily wound up in the ribbon, to keep him and Red together. Red rolled over to see what the wolf was doing to his brother, but her back was to him, and he could only see her reaching for things on the counter, and hear the odd ominous clink of glass or metal.  
  
He resisted the urge to panic. Whatever the wolf was doing, she wanted Edge alive—at least for the moment—or she would have dusted him long ago. By the time she turned and reached for him, he would have leapt into her claws if he could. She took her time pulling the ribbons off him, keeping him firmly gripped between her fingers. He didn’t care about anything except that she was taking him to Edge.  
  
At last he caught sight of the other squirrel, lying on his side, unmoving, and stripped naked; an unfamiliar sight, as Red usually slept later and deeper than his brother. It would have been unusual to see Edge like that back home in their den; it was inexpressibly worse seeing him like that here in—Red took in the surroundings—a frying pan? On a stove? Red started to squirm in desperation, but the wolf had him and he couldn’t twist far enough to bite her. She shifted her grip and pulled off his jacket; there was nothing he could do. He was a little more prepared to resist when she tried to pull off his shorts, but it was futile. He curled up in some instinct for chastity, and she dropped him in the pan next to his brother.  
  
He tried to catch himself but his hands and feet slid in the oil that coated the pan. After a few seconds, he recovered and managed to get to his hands and knees, but in the brief moment he hesitated, unable to decide between escaping the pan or waking his brother, the wolf’s finger slammed down on him, irresistibly pinning him to the slick surface. He tried to pull himself out, but the lubricant that might have let him slip away also prevented him from getting any kind of grip or traction on the surface of the pan. He chittered in frustration as the wolf doused him with some kind of reddish sauce and a sprinkling of spices.  
  
Finally the wolf let go. He heard the click and poof of the gas range lighting. There was no time to waste; he had to get Edge out of here. Kicking up oil and spices, he slid into Edge.  
  
“Boss, please wake up!” He shook Edge’s shoulders, but if nothing the wolf had done had woken him, he didn’t hold out much hope. Should he bite him? But his HP was probably already depleted.  
  
Red moved around behind Edge’s skull and pulled him by the collar bone. The oil made it easy to drag him along, but also made Red’s feet slip out from under him in the process.  
  
“I don’t wanna leave their clothes lying around where Papyrus will see them,” the fox was saying.  
  
Red didn’t register what the wolf answered because Edge’s ear twitched.  
  
“Boss! Come on, we gotta get out of here!”  
  
Edge stirred, twisting out of Red’s oily phalanges, and took in their immediate situation, eye sockets widening in shock. But he knew what to do, and of course he could do it better than Red could. He somehow darted toward the rim of the pan, much less hindered by the oil than Red had been; in fact, he used it to his advantage in order to pull Red along with almost no effort. Red breathed a sigh of relief as Edge grasped the edge of the pan.  
  
It was premature. The wolf caught Edge as he vaulted over the rim, scooping him back into the pan. Red hesitated, unwilling to escape without his brother, and unsure he could even jump that high on such slippery footing. Edge wasted no time in a second attempt, only to slam into the glass lid the wolf lowered over them.  
  
“Don’t just sit there!” Edge growled, shoving at the lid with his shoulders. It didn’t even budge.   
  
With some effort Red managed to stand up and touch the ceiling, but he couldn’t exert any real pressure on it. The floor was starting to heat up noticeably.  
  
“Boss…”  
  
He wasn’t sure if he was apologizing or pleading. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if they didn’t get out. Presumably the wolf knew what she was doing and wouldn’t dust them by accident, as much as he was starting to wish she would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy anniversary, Undertale! <3 <3 <3  
> This is all I got you owo;;;


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red and Edge have a not-good time

“I guess they’re about ready,” said Undyne, lifting the smaller squirrel from the pan. “Can’t overcook them or they’ll dust.” She handed him to Sans, oil dripping from his tail onto the kitchen floor.  
  
“Stars, use a plate,” Sans complained. It wasn’t like him to care so much about the mess, but he didn’t want Papyrus asking questions when he got back.  
  
Undyne rolled her eyes and very deliberately set the taller squirrel on a plate, then leaned against the counter and picked him up with one hand, tongue running over her lips.  
  
Sans looked down at his own squirrel, cupped in his hands. Red—it was definitely the same squirrel Blueberry had introduced them to before—wasn’t unconscious, not quite. His eye lights wavered dimly as he groaned softly. If he had meant to beg for mercy or scold Sans, it didn’t really come across.  
  
“Go on! What do you think?” Undyne urged, eager for his impressions of her recipe, apparently. She hadn’t eaten hers yet. Perhaps she was waiting for him to go first; this was a sort of thank-you dinner after all.  
  
Sans looked from the wolf back down at the squirrel. His fur was sodden, tail weighted down with oil and sauce. It smelled good, not straight ketchup but maybe ketchup-based. Did Undyne know him that well? Red’s bones were well splattered in it as well, but what wasn’t hidden under the sauce, they looked toasty brown. Sans wondered if that would be permanent—but if Sans ate him, the rest of his life wouldn’t be very long. Even if he entertained the idea of keeping him safe for later, he doubted the squirrel would survive that long. Cooking had made him more digestible. And besides, if Undyne ate his brother, would he really want to be rescued?  
  
Undyne was still watching him. He licked the squirrel, from his ribs to his skull. “Tasty,” he said with a grin. It was the truth.  
  
“Hurry up and eat him before your brother gets back,” said Undyne.  
  
Sans almost dropped the squirrel. How did she know? She couldn’t possibly know he’d met these squirrels before. Was it just Papyrus’s affection for Blueberry? Had she reasoned that it would extend to squirrels as a species?  
  
“I didn’t bring enough squirrels for the three of us,” she continued.  
  
“Oh.” Sans’s tail drooped in relief.  
  
Undyne watched him a moment longer, but he made no move to eat the squirrel. “Suit yourself,” she said, giving up on waiting politely. She lifted Edge over her head, opening her jaws. The squirrel dangled pathetically. Sans couldn’t imagine him passively allowing this; he must be unconscious. Then again, if Red could barely move—  
  
“Sans, are you here?” a voice rang out as the door slammed.  
  
Undyne dropped the squirrel onto her tongue and closed her mouth.  
  
“Wait—” Sans clutched Red to his chest.  
  
Undyne glanced at him, irritated, the red tail hanging out to one side almost like a big fuzzy tongue.  
  
“Undyne! What are you doing here?” Too late. Papyrus had arrived. “Is that—?”  
  
Undyne swallowed, unwilling to give up her squirrel—assuming Papyrus would have even wanted him after he’d been in her mouth. Maybe she just wanted him out of the way so she could speak.  
  
But Papyrus had grabbed Edge’s tail. Undyne coughed, surprised to find the squirrel still in her mouth, and Papyrus pulled him out.  
  
“Nyeh heh heh,” Papyrus laughed sheepishly under the wolf’s scandalized stare. “Please forgive me. It’s just that these two squirrels are particular friends of Blueberry, so …”  
  
“What? What are you talking about?” Undyne turned her furious eye on Sans. “What kind of foxes are you?”  
  
Papyrus cocked his head, uncomprehending. “Vulpes vulpes?” he offered.  
  
“I knew this whole thing was weird to start with.” Undyne looked him up and down before turning to Sans again. “Are these squirrels your friends, too?” she sneered. “Why didn’t you say something sooner?”  
  
“They’re not MY friends.” Sans took a step back from the wolf and found his back to the wall.  
  
Undyne growled at him and Papyrus in turn, and Sans was afraid she was going to attack. Part of his mind told him she was probably just embarrassed he’d let her do this, angry that he’d made her look bad in front of Papyrus, but if she acted on that anger, they would be in trouble. Papyrus was tall for a fox but no match for her in a serious fight. As for Papyrus, he seemed alert but not alarmed; she was his friend, after all.  
  
But the wolf turned and stormed out of the house, leaving them alone. No one moved for a long moment, until Red let out a gasping squeak and Sans realized he’d been squeezing him far too tightly. “Oh. Sorry, Red.” He let go, cradling the squirrel in his hands again. Red lay there with his eye sockets squeezed shut, taking shuddering breaths.  
  
“Sans! Why didn’t you tell her you wouldn’t eat Red and Edge?” Papyrus held Edge against his chest with one hand, freeing the other to place on his hip.  
  
Sans’s ears leaned back as far as they could go with guilt. “I—Sorry, Paps.” He could say he’d tried to stop her, but only in the moment he knew they were about to get caught.  
  
“Thank stars Blueberry isn’t seeing this.” Papyrus shook his head, examining Edge more closely.  
  
“Uh. Where is the little blueberry muffin?”  
  
“Er. He’s here. Just not seeing this.” Papyrus was suddenly uncomfortable.  
  
Sans let his ears rise as a grin spread over his face. “Don’t tell me. You ate ‘im?”  
  
“You know how he is about that.” Papyrus glanced toward his belly. “Besides! It’s a good thing I did. Or he would be very upset about what you let happen to Edge and Red!”  
  
It was Sans’s turn to be uncomfortable again, looking down at the squirrel draped over his hands. “What are we gonna do with them now?” It would be pretty depressing if they dusted after all this and he didn’t even get to eat one.  
  
Papyrus was concerned for a moment, but then visibly regained his confidence. “Don’t worry! I’ll take care of them!”  
  
***  
  
It seemed to Red that he just hurt more as time passed. Every bone ached, and if he tried to move them they would just crack to pieces. So he barely reacted as Sans set him on the kitchen table—it was flat and smooth and—he was on a plate. Was Sans that worried about getting oil on the table, or was the fox still thinking of him as food? Food went on plates.  
  
That motivated him to turn his skull and open his eyes, just in time to see Edge lowered next to him.  
  
“Boss? Boss. Wake up,” he croaked, as loudly as he could muster, which wasn’t much.  
  
It was enough, though. Edge groaned. He must have felt at least as terrible as Red did, but he got his arms under himself and attempted to sit up, albeit unsuccessfully. “Red?” There was a tinge of relief in his voice. “What happened?”  
  
Red opened his mouth to answer, but stopped, shivering at the thought of it. The movement hurt. “Papyrus is here now,” he said instead. It was the best news he had.  
  
Edge grunted, unhappy at needing to be rescued by a fox.  
  
“Come on, Boss, you can’t expect a squirrel to take on a wolf.”  
  
Edge didn’t respond except to try and push himself upright again.  
  
“No, no! Just lie still!” Papyrus’s voice boomed from above them. “Now which of you is—? I suppose you’re both about equally burned. Never fear! I have just the thing!”  
  
Something pleasantly cold touched his ribs, and for a moment he relaxed. Whatever it was oozed between his bones, soothingly cool and pleasant-smelling … actually, it smelled kind of good, if a little more plantlike than he’d expect from a fox—wait, it smelled delicious.  
  
“What is this, you just wanted a different sauce?” He tried to pick himself up to glare at Papyrus, but he couldn’t manage it. There was no resisting; there never had been, for him. He may as well try to lie still and avoid unnecessary pain.  
  
“What? You only saved us to eat us?” Edge sounded furious, but Red could hear the note of despair in his voice.  
  
“No, no! I am merely—” Papyrus protested.  
  
“Then why are you using a basting brush?”  
  
“Well, we are in the kitchen! So there are a lot of cooking things at hand! But I’m not going to cook you!”  
  
Red had let his eye lights gutter out, but it sounded as if Edge was actually making it to his feet. “Of course not! We’re already well-cooked, don’t you think? You just have to season us to your taste!”  
  
“No, I would never! You’re in no shape to be eaten, and besides, I want to get you cleaned up before Blueberry sees.”  
  
“Did you hear that, Red? All that work and we’re not fit to be eaten!” Edge scoffed. “Go on and try! I have some fight left in me.”  
  
Red was so proud of him. That was a nice thought to hold onto while he died. He hoped he dusted right here on the plate, to deny the foxes the pleasure of eating him.  
  
***  
  
“Nyehhh,” Papyrus quavered in distress as Edge fought off the basting brush he had pressed into service as a lotion applicator. “It’s just aloe!”  
  
“I didn’t know foxes had a taste for aloe,” Edge said harshly, falling to his knees, his tail limp across the table.  
  
Sans’s ears picked up the skitter of claws. Undyne had left the door open, he realized. “I’m gonna leave you guys aloe-n for a minute,” he said to excuse himself, and went to shut it.  
  
He found Stretch pressed against the wall by the door, looking back over his shoulder as if he thought a fox would follow him inside.  
  
“Oh, it’s you. Where’ve you been?” Sans asked.  
  
Stretch looked at him for a moment, suspicious, then relented. “Gathering nuts. I don’t want to be completely unprepared if we don’t end up spending the winter here.”  
  
“—just what you want us to think—”  
  
“No, I would never! That is, I would, but not like that!”  
  
Raised voices were coming from the kitchen. “What’s going on in there?” Stretch started to walk past Sans.  
  
Sans grabbed him.  
  
“Sans?! What are you doing?”  
  
“You can’t go in there right now.”  
  
“Why not? What are you foxes up to? Where’s Blueberry?” Stretch squirmed.  
  
Sans looked at him, one ear flopping disconcertedly. Did the squirrel not recognize Edge’s voice?  
  
“He’s fine. Calm down,” Sans urged, but Stretch just squirmed harder.  
  
“Let go of me or I’ll bite you!”  
  
“Not if I bite you first.” Sans bared all his teeth. Somehow this didn’t have a calming effect on the squirrel. “Come on, relax.”  
  
Stretch bit him. It didn’t even hurt, but Sans couldn’t let him just get away with it.  
  
“All right, you’re going in time out.” This would be the easiest way to make sure Stretch didn’t see the red squirrels until Papyrus had finished, too.  
  
“Nononono—!” Stretch’s protests began to grow in volume but were quickly silences as Sans stuffed the squirrel into his mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They have these drinks with just chunks of aloe--yogurt also!


End file.
